I’ve drawn Rob as a grizzled mariner: the guy who scans the horizon for pods of rogue orcas; a safe hand at the wheel as the sun rises over the Sahara off the port bow.
The Ikinoo sailed safely past the rocks where my great 4-times grandfather Billy’s ship, HMS Africa, was stranded in the great storm after the battle of Trafalgar before being towed to Gibraltar.
I’m so sorry now that Barbara and I didn’t take the opportunity to join Rob and Karen at Gibraltar or Barbate to follow in Grandad Billy’s foootsteps, but so glad that we caught up with them in Greenock two years ago, we’ll miss him.
Rob died in Lanzarote on the 9th February, the day before what would have been his 53rd birthday.